Note: I received an eARC of this book and these are my honest thoughts.

PUBLICATION DATE: Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Blurb

She’s got his back.
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka “bodyguard”), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name―captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah―against her will and her better judgment―finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong???
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

Review

HOLY COW – this book was such a breath of fresh air and one of my most surprising reads of 2022 so far. I genuinely enjoyed this book so much I didn’t want to put it down (and therefore made it really hard to read it on a weekday when I was supposed to be working).

Genuinely, Hannah and Jack were amazing characters and I enjoyed getting to see them develop and grow into the characters they became throughout the pages of this novel by Katherine Center.

I was instantly in love with Hannah, a character who we got to know slowly and quickly at the same time. She’s hard, yet she’s soft. She’s curious, yet she’s aware and focused. She’s hopeless and hopeful.

Enter Jack. Their meet-cute cracked me up, and from then on, every time Hannah made Jack laugh, I was a goner all over again.

Jack is the boyfriend every girl deserves. There’s something so profound about a male lead who has lost someone important to him, yet can’t help but love fiercely, even if from an arm’s length away.

Other things I loved about this book:
-Jack’s family
-Hannah’s team
-Famous person-normal person
-She’s grumpy, he’s sunshine
-The character development
-The setting
-The writing
-How quickly we fell into the story and the action
-The SWEETNESS
-The twist at the end
-The overall care for others that our main characters display

Read this if you love slow burn, tension, and a sense of belonging stirred in with some adventure, some romance, some awkward real life, family, and books where women can take care of themselves.

Big thanks to Katherine Center and her team at St. Martin’s Press, as well as NetGalley, for early access to an eARC of this book, as well as Book of the Month for making this one a BOTM July pick. I’m grateful to add it to my shelf! FIVE STARS FROM THIS LADY!

I received an ARC of this book and these are my honest thoughts.

Rating: 5 Stars